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Key Vote "No" on H.R. 4872: the "Reconciliation Act of 2010"

On behalf of hundreds of thousands of FreedomWorks members nationwide, and the more than 300,000 people who signed our NoHealthCareReconciliation.com petition, I urge you to VOTE NO on H.R. 4872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010. The reconciliation bill that you get to vote on again makes the terrible health care legislation recently enacted even worse with more job killing tax hikes, harsher penalties, and new government bureaucracies.

The reconciliation bill also builds a massive new student loan bureaucracy by taking over the private aspects of the student loan industry. This move will put tens of thousands of Americans out of work in the private sector and adds more government employees that the shrinking private sector must pay for. And, this shift is supposed to happen by next semester, so students and families can expect to feel the overbearing costs of bigger government almost immediately.

A look at the proposed “fix” to the special deal given to Nebraska to ensure the vote of Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) reveals a far worse outcome for taxpayers. True, Nelson’s state no longer gets its sweetheart deal, but the new formula used to allocate Medicaid funding leaves federal taxpayers responsible for covering 90 percent of the cost of the Medicaid expansion for every state. It also includes special Medicaid funding increases for 17 states and Washington D.C. It’s a sweetheart deal for everyone—except taxpayers, who will have to pick up the tab.

Also, when combined with the effects of the healthcare reform bill that has already been signed into law, the reconciliation bill would increase taxes by $569 billion. The worst of these tax hikes include a hike from 15 to 24 percent on capital gains and a hike from 15 to 43 percent on dividends. This is one of the most anti-job, anti-growth tax increases imaginable because it hits business owners who create jobs and it makes it harder for them to raise the extra money needed to expand. Taxing the reward those who risk their savings by investing may—or may not—get only discourages such growth-creating activities. Under the reconciliation bill, businesses will also be hit with harsher penalties for not abiding by the government enforced employee mandate. The bill raises the penalty on employers from $750 per uncovered employee to $2,000 per uncovered employee.

Tax hikes and additional burdens on job creators like these are the opposite of what our economy needs. They will lead to further job loss and less economic growth.

We will count your vote on H.R. 4872 as a KEY VOTE when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Freedom Scorecard. The Economic Freedom Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the Jefferson Award, which recognizes members of Congress with voting records that support economic freedom.

FreedomWorks Vice President of Legislative Affairs Jason Pye made the following statement on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) plans to bring the 2015 ObamaCare repeal to the floor for a vote:

Christopher Jacobs has a great piece up over at The Federalist highlighting how the advanceable, refundable tax credits proposed in House Republican leader's ObamaCare "alternative," the American Health Care Act, might wind up taking a Byrd bath in the Senate. He raises a good argument, but other aspects of the bill may also fall victim to the "Byrd rule."

With the passage of S.Con.Res. 3, the FY 2017 budget resolution, Congress has started the process of repealing ObamaCare through reconciliation. Although the budget resolution spends far too much and increases publicly held debt by $9 trillion, its purpose is to direct relevant committees to make recommendations to repeal ObamaCare. It will not be sent to the president for approval.

The Senate didn't waste any time when it convened at the beginning of the 115th Congress. The chamber moved quickly on a motion to proceed on the FY 2017 budget regulation, S.Con.Res. 3, which begins the process of repealing ObamaCare. The resolution directs two Senate committees -- Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions -- and two House committees -- Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce -- to begin work on repeal legislation through budget reconciliation.

The House is set to send the president a bill repealing the majority of his signature health care law. While the president will certainly veto the bill, doing so merely underscores its implied promise: elect the right president in 2016, and ObamaCare's days are numbered.